Alternatives to Migration, Decent Jobs for Filipino Youth - a
three-year USD 6 million initiative funded by Spain and implemented
by the Filipino government, IOM and UN agencies - was launched in
Manila yesterday.

The programme, which is designed to improve access to decent
work for young people in four of the country's poorest provinces,
also aims to improve policy coherence and implementation in
relation to young people, employment and migration, by encouraging
their greater participation in shaping the policies that affect
their lives.

The initiative, which will be funded by the Spanish government
through the Millennium Development Goal Achievement Fund (MDGF),
will be implemented by IOM, ILO, UNICEF, UNFPA and government
partners.

These will include the Department of Labor and Employment
(DOLE), the Department of Education (DepED), the Department of
Trade and Industry (DTI), the Technical Education and Skills
Development Authority (TESDA), the National Youth Commission (NYC),
and the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women
(NCRFW).

Local government in Agusan del Sur, Antique, Maguindanao and
Masbate, the four target provinces, which have high levels of
poverty and some of the lowest school enrollment rates in the
country, will also play a key role in implementing the
programme.

In the Philippines approximately 20 per cent of the population
are between the ages of 15 and 24 and about 50 per cent of these
are unemployed. Many of those with jobs work overseas and the group
represents some 35 per cent of the country's 11 million Overseas
Filipino Workers (OFWs.)

OFW's make a vital contribution to the Philippine economy,
sending home some USD 16 billion in remittances in 2008, but many
would prefer to work in and contribute to the development of their
own country if they could, according to IOM programme manager Ida
Mae Fernandez.  

The Alternatives to Migration, Decent Jobs for Filipino Youth
project, which will run through 2012, aims to deliver:

• A national action agenda to inform national and local planning
  processes.
• Localized youth, employment and migration policies and
  programmes, through the establishment of resource and support
  centers in each province.
• A model mechanism to channel remittances for developing youth
  employment alternatives.
• Public private partnerships to develop alternative employment
  and services for young people.
• Enhanced technical and vocational skills training.
• A gender-sensitive and youth, employment and migration-enhanced
  curriculum for public secondary education.
• Youth, employment and migration-enhanced employment
  services.
• More inclusive flexible secondary education for disadvantaged
  young people.

For more information please contact:

Ida Mae Fernandez

IOM Manila

Tel. + 63.02.848.12.60

E-mail: "mailto:ifernandez@iom.int">ifernandez@iom.int 

or

Joanna Dabao

Tel. + 63.02.848.12.60

E-mail: "mailto:jdabao@iom.int">jdabao@iom.int